Nearly 16,000 pages of letters, speeches, newspaper articles and other suffragist documents are now available on By the People, a crowdsourcing platform launched by the library in 2018. The project seeks to make the library’s collections fully word searchable and easier to read, for both scholars and lay historians alike. – Smithsonian
Tag: 07.30.19
Brain-To-Text: Neuroscientists Figure Out How To Decipher Words From Brain Signals
With a radical new approach, doctors have found a way to extract a person’s speech directly from their brain. The breakthrough is the first to demonstrate how a person’s intention to say specific words can be gleaned from brain signals and turned into text fast enough to keep pace with natural conversation. – The Guardian
Some People Have Really Strong Feelings About The Semicolon
In a Q&A, Cecelia Watson, author of the new book about the oft-misunderstood punctuation mark, talks about how the semicolon has elicited romantic love, inferiority complexes, class resentment, and even arguments about gender roles. – Longreads
A Picasso Show In Beijing Provokes Debates About Censorship
“Beijing brags about its humming art scene. Galleries thrive. The art schools possess a certain frisson. Art is widely taught in elementary schools. But shrouding all this creative fervor is the meddling hand of the government. Censorship is rife in literature, and film. Although few art shows have been closed in the last few years, exhibitions are self-censored, and many artists choose to work abroad to escape the official tastemakers.” – The New York Times
Gawker’s Relaunch Is Called Off, Staff Is Laid Off
Bustle Digital Group, which bought the site in a bankruptcy auction last year, said in a statement, “We are postponing the Gawker relaunch. For now, we are focusing company resources and efforts on our most recent acquisitions, Mic, The Outline, Nylon and Inverse.” – Variety
Art Dealer Sentenced To 4-12 Years For Multimillion-Dollar Fraud And Larceny
“Between 2010 and 2015, [Timothy] Sammons is said to have pocketed money from art he sold for his clients” — including works by Picasso and Chagall — “and used art that did not belong to him as collateral to obtain personal loans.” – Artnet
Breakout Hit: Lil Nas X Breaks 23-Year-Old Record For Most Weeks At The Top Of The Billboard Pop Charts
The breakthrough rapper smashed the record this week when the track spent its 17th week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart – the only song to do so since Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s duet One Sweet Day set the record in 1996. – The Guardian
David Brooks, Art Critic, Weighs In Again: This Time On Definitions Of Greatness
For most people, creativity is precisely the ability to pursue multiple interests at once, and then bring them together in new ways. “Without contraries is no progression,” William Blake wrote. – The New York Times
UK’s Creative Industries May Face Labor Problems After Brexit
“The prevalence of freelance workers in the sector – 50% of companies surveyed had used freelancers in the past year – and EU workers among them, meant that ‘one in ten businesses in the creative industries employ a freelance worker who might be unable to gain continued access to the UK workforce’ after Brexit.” – Arts Professional
Ancient Tablet Recording Homer’s “Odyssey” Discovered – Maybe The Oldest
It is engraved with 13 verses from the poem recounting the adventures of the hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy. The tale was probably composed by Homer in the late 8th Century BC. – BBC